There are two kinds of surprises at E3. The first strikes suddenly like a lightning bolt to the spine. It’s the announcement of Twilight Princess, an event that made grown men cry, or the unveiling of Fumito Ueda’s upcoming The… Continue Reading →

There are two kinds of surprises at E3. The first strikes suddenly like a lightning bolt to the spine. It’s the announcement of Twilight Princess, an event that made grown men cry, or the unveiling of Fumito Ueda’s upcoming The Last Guardian. The other surprise is more complicated. It’s knowing vaguely about a game or product and finally playing it at the show. A quick hands-on sticks in your mind; it wows you because it’s light years better than what you expected. It’s swelling wave that overcomes you rather than a quick strike to the senses.

At this year E3, the surprises were more of the latter, and no one amazed me more than Nintendo with a handful of amazing announcements. The most important one was the Nintendo 3DS, which promised 3D without the glasses. I was skeptical of this at first. I mean could this really be true? If all these high-tech companies can’t figure out the glasses bit, how could Nintendo?

Well, the Nintendo 3DS is legit. It works beautifully, almost like magic. Your eyes naturally drift to the 3D screen and just stay there, hypnotized. The effect feels like you’re looking at one of those 3D baseball cards, only this feels more real. What makes this device so brilliant is that there’s a viralness to the experience.

The 3D isn’t something that can be translated on video or on a glossy magazine. It’s something that needs to be seen to be believed, but once you glance at the screen, it’s hard not to be sold on Nintendo’s new hand-held. It’s something that may be as important as when games went into another type of 3D — from sprites to polygons.

Even without the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo unveiled a stellar lineup that included by far my most anticipated game — Kid Icarus: Uprising. No other game put a bigger smile on my face. Unfortunately, all I saw was a trailer. The rest of the titles could have carried the show for Nintendo in any other year. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword looks like an instant game of the year contender for 2011. Donkey Kong Country Returns brings the great ape back to form. >GoldenEye, starring Daniel Craig instead of Pierce Brosnan, will tug at fans’ sense of nostalgia. Kirby’s Epic Yarn puts Nintendo’s puffball hero in a distinct adventure with a distinct look. It reminds me of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island.

Of the big three publishers, Sony had a solid showing with one legitimate surprise — Twisted Metal. David Jaffe has been hinting at these game for two years now, and to finally see it on the PlayStation 3 brought me back. The big question I have is how will the game still be relevant in a world where death matches and online play are commonplace. What can Twisted Metal bring to the table? I talked with co-creator Scott Campbell about this and he had some smart ideas.

Sony also impressed me with Sorcery, which looks like the game Harry Potter always tried to be. The developer uses Sony’s new Move controller like a wand to cast spells and defeat foes. The system works similarly to Skyward Sword and could be the perfect showcase for what the Move can do for the core gamers. It seems as though developers have a better grasp of the new control scheme compared with what they’re doing with Microsoft’s Kinect.

There are a handful of other titles Sony showed such as Infamous 2 and Killzone 3 (but no Resistance 3). There was also a definite push toward 3D-vision gaming with the aforementioned shooter andMotorStorm Apocalypse. Both work amazing well, but I’m not sold on 3D-vision gaming with glasses because of the price. Given the economy and the number of great normal games coming out, high-definition gaming may be a better bet.

But Sony wasn’t without its disappointments. Instead of a PSP successor, they showed off a new marketing campaign. Blah. Also, I think everyone and there mother wanted to see how the highly anticipated The Last Guardian was shaping up. But I didn’t see anything from that either.

But that disappointment couldn’t compare with Microsoft’s press conference. Gears of War 3,Halo: Reach, Fable 3 and Metal Gear Solid Rising highlighted the event. Yes, they were great. Yes, they were beautiful. And hell yes, I want them. But the centerpiece was supposed to be Project Natal, which is now officially known as Kinect.

I like how the Kinect’s navigation is designed. It’ll make doing things on the Xbox 360 simple, plus I don’t need a controller or remote. (I lose mine frequently.) But when it comes to games, a lot of them seemed hit or miss. I’m not sold on the running or driving without a wheel. I did see some potential in Kinect Adventures, but otherwise it was rather, well, lackluster. There’s no killer app for the Kinect that I saw. The one thing that comes closest to it is maybe Harmonix’s Dance Central.

As for new hardware, which generates the biggest buzz at these conferences, Microsoft did unveil a redesigned Xbox 360. It’s slightly more svelt and runs quieter. I admit that I want one, but an Xbox 360 that’s gagged and on a diet still isn’t as impressive as the potentially revolutionary hand-held Nintendo has to offer.